How to Justify Buying the New $1,000 iPhone X, in One Chart

How to Justify Buying the New $1,000 iPhone X, in One Chart

Buying a cup of coffee every day could be twice as expensive as the daily cost of your iPhone.

Customers look at their iPhones inside the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Compared to your daily cup of coffee, getting the new iPhone X might seem like a big investment.

Buying a cappuccino at Starbucks, for example, will run you about $3. That seems like nothing compared to the $699 starting price for the iPhone 8, or the iPhone X’s $999 price tag.

Unless, that is, you break the cost of your iPhone down by day.

In the US, the average smartphone owner keeps their phone for 22.7 months — about 690 days — before upgrading.

That makes the cost of the iPhone 8 a little more than $1 a day, after factoring in sales tax. Even if you upgrade every year using Apple’s iPhone upgrade program, the daily cost is only a few cents more.

Still, most people spend 70% of their budget on more expensive costs, like housing, transportation, and food. But cutting back in a few key areas could help you maximize the amount of money you’re saving today.

That’s not to say that coffee has to go, but taking a different view of your spending habits can better inform the decisions you make.

The value you get for your phone almost certainly exceeds that of your cup of coffee. (Skye Gould/Business Insider)